Imports for the other U.S. systems...

There are plenty of people who are heavily into importing for the Saturn, Dreamcast, TG16, SNES, even the Playstation. But what about the systems that aren't known for having great imports? Is this simply because the Japan-only games are terrible?

I've been wondering about systems like the N64, Game Boy/Color/Advance, Sega CD, Game Gear, and others.

I have Kunio's Dodgeball for the Game Boy and it's pretty good...kinda slow compared to the NES Super Dodgeball though. I've heard good things about Annet Again for Sega CD...

N64: I was never into this system, but so few games came out, there are very fwe Japan-only games I believe. Sin and Punishment I believe is one of them (or I could be wrong - again, I don't own the system).

As for GBA, I think most of the Japan-only games are going to be text heavy adventure games, and even then, I think there will only be a few of them. Buying imports for the GBA is mainly just getting something before your friends.

MegaCD - there are a few imports that are probably worth picking up. I"ve got some scans at my site that might give you an idea.

Game Gear -- Phantasy Star Gaiden/Adventure, at least one of the SHining Force's, and Panzer Dragoon Mini are all worth getting. Also have scans of all these on my site ify ou want to know what the boxes look like.

For N64 (which is a very easy mod), there are games like Bangai-O, Puyo Puyo 4, Puyo Puyo Sun, and Sin & Punishment, great games that just never came here (Well Bangai-O did, but supposedly the N64 version is slightly superior). Sin & Punishment is almost entirely in English with Jp subtitles, as it was slated for a US release and canned by NOA for some reason. There are a nice handful of grat import N64 games.

As for Sega CD, it's kind of a bitch to get them to work. You either need a hardware mod (requires skill) or a Datel CD convertor which lets you play import Mega CDs (VERY VERY rare and expensive). There are supposedly a TON of good import Mega CD games, but I've never ha dthe opportunity to get a system rigged to play em. Geelw knows a WHOLE lot about the import Mega CD market.

For Game Boy and Game Gear, the import market is a bit odd. No region lockouts so it's easy to import, but demand is overall lower. Stuff like the GBA Fire Emblem games, the GG Shining Force and Phantasy Star games, Panzer Dragoon Mini for GG, and others command a decent $ value on the collectors market, but a lot of the low dollar games either came stateside, or have VERY heavy Jp text. The high dollar ones are mostly heavy Jp as well, rare RPGs and such.